Clearing and Healing the Ancestral Line

Time: anytime, can take as little as 20 minutes, or as long as 2 hours. Moon cycle is irrelevant

Prep: shower and warm chocolate

The thing to remember about ancestors is that the term has a broader meaning than is generally connoted. We tend to think about ancestors as past members of our family lineage. And while this is indeed true, ancestor work by nature involves all ancestors. Every being living on the manifest plane has ancestors. There are tree ancestors, animal ancestors and earth ancestors. Anything that has a lineage of life has ancestors.

So when we go to do ancestor work, we need to remember that there are more beings involved than simply human. This has strong ramifications on your ritual work because there can be a lot more energy behind the task than you imagined. All ancestors are concerned with one thing and one thing only: life. If it takes the form of preservation of living systems, the ancestors are involved. If it takes the shape of elevation of living beings, ancestors are involved. The ancestors—more than any other energetic being—are the ones who care most deeply about the continuance of life. The power of that weaves its way into your workings whether you intend it or not.

Having said that, we have a lot of work to do when developing our relationship with our human ancestors. The direct lineage of our DNA line is riddled with damage and pollution caused by the suffering of those souls during their manifest time. Every decision that one of your ancestors made is coded into your matrix and you may be living out circumstances in this life in order to clear out crap they did in their lives. Seems unfair. But so it is.

On a very direct, manifest level, let’s consider that your great grandmother lived through World War II. She was forced to flee her home with nothing other than the clothes on her back after it was destroyed by air raids. After being hungry, tired, dirty and frightened, she used only her wits and wiles to get to America. Even after being safe for a number of years, she still has scars from that experience. So she teaches her daughters to not trust in apparent security, but rather to be ready for disaster at any moment. She does this believing that she is doing them a service.

Despite this not manifesting in their lives, that scar stays with them. It lives down low in their Earth chakra; their security is always a driving factor in their lives. They marry and in the custom of the time become mothers. Their entire lives are safe and secure. But this scar is embedded. Perhaps their scar shows up in the fashion of hoarding food in order to be prepared for the coming disaster. Perhaps their cupboards are overloaded, and they take great subconscious pride in feeding their children. Living a life with plenty of food is how they assuage that Earth chakra fear.

So now we have children who associate security with food. When they experience social anxiety, they turn to what their mothers’ gave them. Food represents a steady home. And even though these children have never known the loss of a home, their grandmother’s fear is firmly embedded in their energetic matrices. Their relationship with food as security comes from their grandmother via the mother. These children naturally become overweight, and perhaps that obesity creates instability in their relationships. The security scar is fulfilled and appeased.

Do you see? It can go on further. Perhaps the children of the children see how unhappy their parents are with their food relationships, and head in the other direction. Perhaps we find eating disorders or body dysmorphia. The cycle of the great-grandmother’s scar is continued even though these children may have never met her. Everybody in the lineage has an Earth chakra samskara that continues to be played out.

Until it is healed and the chain in broken.

In order to do that, we do need to have a little family history under our belts. And, of course, for most of us, we can only go so far with that. So what has to happen is that we must enter the ritual field with what we have and then journey for more. It will come. And it may not seem logical. But an important thing to remember is to trust what you are given. Second guessing the information will only keep the scar in place. And if it isn’t your scar….well….it belongs to someone and the offering of your work into the collective service is a boon to all humanity as we evolve.

To get started, please collect and gather your tools. For tokens of remembrance, you may choose pictures or items that have memory in them. If you do not have any of these, go outside and choose objects of natural beauty that remind you of your people as far back as you can remember. Please put all of your tools into one space that is quite near to your designated altar or working space. And if you do not have one, go make one. A clear shelf, a cabinet surface, or a serving tray that can be placed and left alone will all suffice as altar spaces. They key is that once you lay your work down, you want to leave it down until your intuition tells you that it is time to remove or change it.

Go and take your ritual shower. Put on the clothes that are most comfortable and suited for ritual work. Then prepare your ceremonial chocolate. If you cannot find high grade ceremonial cacao, you may use very high quality dark chocolate melted and diluted with water to form a palatable drink. Add a tiny pinch of cayenne or ginger to stimulate the spirit. You will drink this as you work; the cup should be finished by the time you are ready to listen your ancestors. Move to your working area and begin.

Sit quietly and meditate, breathing extremely slowly through the nose. Get centered in yourself and draw yourself in the line of your people. Connect the dots as if you are bringing shape to the tether that already binds you. Fill it with light. Begin to chant sa ta na ma, ra ma da sa, sa say so hung. You will continue this mantra as you work.

Light the sage or palo santo and place it on the altar, burning. (Please be smart. Use a smudging dish if you need it.) Consciously dismiss any energies that have mal-intent, clapping roundly and shooing them firmly away. Then begin to arrange your altar in a fashion that is pleasing, including the two empty bowls. Light the candles. Make certain the tokens are in a position of honour, they are the touch point for the spirits you want to hear.

Place the coins in one of the bowl, stating I offer these to the ancestors of my line. I wish to hear and heal you.

Put the flowers on the altar, stating I offer these to the grandmothers. I wish to hear and heal you.

Pour the rum into the dish, stating I offer this to the grandfathers, I wish to hear and heal you.

Then state very clearly the names of the ancestors that are closest to you. Ask them to join you as you journey through the line to clear the scars that have come through them into the family. Tell them what you are about. It is critical that you are clear with them. At this point, your chocolate should be done. I also generally take up chanting here again, but if it slips away, that is okay.

Now here is where it gets highly individual. I cannot tell you what you are going to experience; I can only tell you where to start. The closer your relationship to the ancestor you call, the easier it will be to be led into the past. You must examine their life with your mind first and allow distinctions to be made; trust me, you will know what I mean when you get there. With the assistance of your ancestor, you will see bright or clear spots of damage that are the obvious starting points of the scars you are looking for. There will be a sense of a ha! that your spirit cannot ignore. When you find them, try to heal them through love and understanding. Redirect the energy that flows there to a more beneficial current. But if these places are particularly dark and gnarly, do a little psychic surgery. (Do take care, you will need to ground those energies very firmly. I like to take them to an ice cave, or under the sea. You choose what works for you. But please don’t just cut them off and toss them out. Astral litter is both rude and dangerous!!)

From there allow yourself to journey with your ancestor guide. They will take you where you need to go to find the ancestors that you need to heal. It will feel like you are being introduced around an astral ancestral cocktail party. If you are in the right place, they will come to you and tell you what you need to do. I like to keep chanting because the vibration of the mantra helps to facilitate the work that needs to be done, but additionally, it reminds me of my body and of time and space. By the time you are thirsty, you have probably gone as far as you need to for one ritual’s work.

When it is time to land, you will need to be very careful about pulling out of that space. Be polite. Thank everybody. Cover your heart with your hands and breathe back into this time and space. As you prepare to move around the room and out of ritual space, leave the altar running, and candles burning. The ancestors will use it as a touch point, and you may be surprised how comforting it is to have them in your daily space. Move around. Touch things of the current moment. Drink a little water and eat something light and satisfying to the taste.